Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the 2018 Democratic nominee for Florida governor, is back in jail in Alabama after a judge revoked his bond following a missed drug screening and a positive test for methamphetamine.<\/p>\n
Gillum was arrested in Alabama in July on drug charges. After his release, prosecutors said he later missed a required drug screening and tested positive for methamphetamine in court, prompting the judge to revoke his bond.<\/p>\n
Joanna Johnson, owner of the Avalon Treatment Centers, said Gillum\u2019s situation reflects what she has seen repeatedly in addiction treatment, regardless of a person\u2019s background or status.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn addiction doesn’t care where you work and doesn’t care who you are and doesn’t care what color you are and doesn’t care how high you are. It gives you an out,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida professor emeritus of political science, pointed to Gillum\u2019s rapid political ascent and the influence he had during his 2018 run.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe survived a competitive primary and went on to almost win the governor’s race. He was also very influential in showing other candidates how important it was to target grassroots activities,\u201d MacManus said.<\/p>\n
Gillum narrowly lost the 2018 governor\u2019s race to Ron DeSantis and built a national profile in the process. MacManus said that history makes his current legal and personal troubles stand out even more.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those who never knew his legacy at that time, they will just see a politician that looks like he can’t help himself and he can’t keep himself out of trouble, both from a drug addiction and illegal perspective,\u201d MacManus said.<\/p>\n
Johnson said cases like Gillum\u2019s also underscore how common relapse and addiction are beyond any single public figure. Nationally, about 48.4 million people age 12 and older had a substance use disorder in 2024, according to the latest federal survey. Among those classified as needing substance-use treatment, only about one in five received it.<\/p>\n
Johnson said she battled addiction for 15 years herself, and that experience has shaped how she views others who are still struggling.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody needs to start looking within their own families and their own struggles and see how unfair this is,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n
Gillum\u2019s next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the 2018 Democratic nominee for Florida governor, is back in jail in Alabama…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-368264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}